


Laxardance

by nimblermortal



Category: Laxdæla saga | Laxdaela Saga
Genre: Dancing, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-15
Updated: 2015-12-15
Packaged: 2018-05-06 22:18:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5432849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nimblermortal/pseuds/nimblermortal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gudrun is determined to dance with Kjartan, but Kjartan's busy competing with Bolli.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Laxardance

Gudrun had spent half her childhood whining at her brothers to get them to teach her the boys’ dances. She liked the girls’ dances and was good at them, but there was no girls’ dance that let you squat and then spring into the air, feet flashing forward. She had spent eight years trying to prove that while it may be unseemly, it was entirely possible to do that in a skirt, and arguing that it wasn’t only meant that she had won.

She spent the second half of her childhood becoming so good at the girls’ dances that she could make the boys miss that kick and fall on their faces. There were skills and there were skills, and Gudrun couldn’t say she regretted her choice.

Not until she saw the boys from Hjardarholt dance. They moved like little she had seen before, not so much grace as spirit and power, like a colt let free to run as fast and far as it was able. Some of the jumps made her breath catch, and she wasn’t certain whether that was because she expected them to fall or because their movements caught some emotion deep within her and gave it a visceral tug.

“Are they quite - safe to dance with?” she asked.

“Oh, certainly,” her friend Aud said, and added, “Mostly.”

“Mostly?” Gudrun asked, and was answered by a solid thud as one of the boys landed flat on his backside. Aud laughed at him.

“You may want to sit out the first few dances anyway,” she said. Gudrun stiffened.

“I don’t sit out during the dances,” she said.

“Oh, certainly not,” said Aud. “Everyone knows you’re the best dancer in Laxardal.”

There was another solid thud and more laughter, this time coming from two boys sitting on the floor. The first one, it seemed, had not precisely merited their scorn; he had fallen not from some technical failing, but because he had been foolish enough to try something new while not safely at home. The second boy, hidden by the press of dancers, had promptly tried the same thing and gotten the same result; Gudrun saw his friend reach a hand down to help him up, and then she lost track of whatever she had been thinking because the second boy’s face was full of every bit of vigor the dance had held and a thousand times more happiness.

“Who is that?” she breathed.

“Bolli Thorleiksson,” said Aud, deliberately misinterpreting which boy Gudrun was asking after. “He’s always trying new things. Oh, and his cousin Kjartan.” She snuck a sideways glance at Gudrun and smiled smugly. “Most people are enamored of him.”

“I’m going to dance with him,” Gudrun declared, and Aud’s smile vanished.

“I wouldn’t recommend it -“ she began, but Gudrun was already moving across the dance floor, positioning herself to be ready when the solo dances ended.

Kjartan, younger than her by perhaps two years, was not choosy about his partner; breathing hard, he glanced around as the composition of the floor started to change, saw something in a dress, and held out his hand, grinning. Gudrun took it eagerly and followed where he led.

“I’m Kjartan Olafsson,” he said, barely glancing at her as he looked over the heads of the people they were dancing with. He wasn’t tall enough to do so without peering ostentatiously, but judging by the length of his limbs, that wouldn’t be long in coming.

“Gudrun Osvifsdotter,” said Gudrun. “Do you -“

His hands came up as the first bars of the music started to sound, and Gudrun took them automatically. They were off the moment the music allowed, and Kjartan was still barely noticing her, his attention somewhere neither of them could see. The change came and Kjartan spun away from her, landing a solid stamp before he turned back into the turns, and round they went.

The moment they came free of the turns, there was an answering stamp followed by a slap. Kjartan laughed and, ignoring whatever noises the other men made showing off, stamped once and clapped a hand over his heel. And turned.

It went on like that, noises echoing across the dance hall, and Gudrun began to become annoyed. There was nothing technically wrong with how Kjartan was dancing; he was exactly where he needed to be exactly when he needed to be there, his frame was perfect, and he moved through the steps without thinking, with as much grace as - as Gudrun herself. But his attention was always across the dance floor, competing with his unseen cousin, apparently aware of what Bolli was doing even when no noise drifted across the floor, or when they were drowned out by the sounds of other people dancing, or the music swelling into a shrill surely meant to scold them into better behavior.

Gudrun turned her own attention to the dance, putting extra effort into her own part, adding flourishes that made heads turn in the couples all around them. But not Kjartan’s. He ignored her as readily as he had at the start, fully caught up in his game. Nothing Gudrun could do tempted him.

When the music ended, he looked at her at last, and he bowed over her hand, his eyes sparkling with mischief. “Thank you, Gudrun,” he said, showing that he had at least remembered her name - but then he turned and disappeared into the crowd, his shoulders heaving with his heavy breaths, presumably looking for his cousin to congratulate him on the dance.

“I did tell you not to dance with him,” said Aud. “They usually calm down after a few dances, or else they wear each other out.”

“They’re always like this?” Gudrun asked, somewhat disbelieving. The sheer energy that had gone into the last dance alone would have exhausted any other man for the night.

“Oh yes,” said Aud. “Remarkable, isn’t it?”

“Then I’ll have to find a way to match them,” Gudrun declared. She was still watching Kjartan across the hall; what she could see of his posture was relaxed, and he leaned backwards and said something quietly to someone standing quite near. His eyes skated over her face without catching.

She’d just have to find a way to keep his attention then, she thought. She could do it; she was the best dancer in Laxardal. As remarkable as he was. She just had to make him notice.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Unfortunately I can't find the dance I watched before writing this, but here's a couple showing more or less what I'm envisioning them doing. Except, of course, that these dances were invented about seven hundred years after the saga age. Shhhh.
> 
> [ Behaving themselves ](%E2%80%9D)  
>  A little springier  
> [ But in a room full of people](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDIVM6sz2hM&t=1m30s)


End file.
